My experience with the issues of illness and medications and doctors and hospitals and specialists and procedures and tests and at-home care, etc., is that this is the one area which required some of the most detailed information and the most constant, almost daily monitoring, as the information changed quite frequently.

Besides myself, I had to keep other family members constantly informed, as the responsibility of transporting the parents to primary doctors, as well as specialists, was shared. Each of the involved family members had to have the most recent names of medications, their dosages and frequency taken, as well as making sure that each of the doctors with whom we visited had the same information.

As a result of the confusion, inconsistent information, questionable treatment, incompatible medications, and multiple prescribing physicians, I have used MedsFile.com as a healthcare management tool. This website keeps track of a patient's medications, doctors, pharmacies, allergies, supplements, and more.

It takes just one person to be responsible for keeping the information up-to-date, but allows every family member, doctor, specialist and hospital to have immediate access to this information through the Internet. This system also works for emergencies when getting detailed information to EMTs.

Remember that medical conditions such as Alzheimer's and depression, which may not be so evident in the beginning, play a very large role in whether or not a parent is capable of taking care of himself, even when you cannot see any physical mobility issues. Someone will need to check on the parent to make sure that medication is appropriately taken, as a severe illness could be the result of mistakenly taken drugs.

There are many different styles of pill organizers, i.e. monthly, daily, by size, by color, etc. You need to ascertain if the parent is capable of even taking the appropriate medication even after someone else has organized the pills.

As most people take medication, and many people take several medications, it becomes a chore to remember all of the drug names, the dosages, and the prescribing physicians with their contact information, as well as being able to recall all of the supplements taken and their dosages. Remembering all of this information accurately becomes an extremely difficult task for the elderly. And, taking the wrong drugs unintentionally can have disastrous results. Over 1.5 million Americans are hospitalized each year for not taking their medications as prescribed. Here again I relied on MedsFile.com to help me organize and maintain medication information.

CONTINUED: '14. Does the parent have funeral arrangements?'

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